The System · Mind
Winjitsu
The mental curriculum of Rick Tew’s Martial Science — taught as a routine rather than a reading list, on the argument that knowing what you should do has never once been the same as doing it.
Winjitsu is the mental training component of the Total Warrior curriculum, structured in five parts and taught alongside physical training rather than separately from it.
The problem it addresses
“No matter where you go, there you are.”
The observation behind the whole curriculum: people chase goals, achievements and relationships, arrive, and find the fulfilment isn’t there — because the focus was external the entire time.
Most self-improvement follows one of three routes: read a book, listen to a speaker, watch a video. All three build awareness. None of them produce change, because change requires a routine that adjusts how you think, and reading about a routine is not having one.
Rick Tew’s framing: “Knowing there is a screwdriver in a box will not fix anything.”
Why routine rather than insight
Most of us know what we should do and do the opposite. The reason given here is that no auto-pilot has been built for doing your best, so default conditioning takes over — and default conditioning leans negative.
The program’s answer is three requirements, in order:
- You must get into the doing of these strategies
- You must become these strategies
- You must have a routine using these strategies
“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” — Confucius, quoted throughout the curriculum.
The five sections
- ACE
- Achieving combined excellence
- MAK
- Motivation and action
- MBS
- Mind-body synergy
- NRG
- Internal growth and energy
- CMT
- Creative mental training
What it is not
Explicitly not sitting cross-legged while somebody reads zen quotes aloud. The stated method is conversational, physical and built around reflection time — mental training run the way the physical curriculum is run, through repetition in a real environment.
The same principle as the martial system applies: build on existing strengths, eliminate weaknesses. What works for one person will not resonate with another, and the curriculum is meant to be adapted rather than followed identically.
The stories we tell
A recurring theme: many people are stuck telling a particular story about themselves and don’t notice how much that story controls the outcome. Much of the mental work is identifying which story is running, and whether it is one worth keeping.
“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” — Confucius